2021 Volkswagen Tiguan vs Volvo XC40

What's the difference?

The Tiguan moves a smidge further upmarket with this facelift, now with an entry cost higher than ever, and while that might rule it out for some buyers, no matter which one you pick you’d still be getting the full experience when it comes to safety, cabin comfort, and convenience.

It's up to you to choose how you want it to look and drive, which are ultimately subjective areas anyway. On that basis I have no doubt this Tiguan will keep its buyers happy for years to come.

The Volvo XC40 Recharge packages up the kinds of things I reckon Volvo buyers want - style, safety and advanced technology. The XC40's thrifty fuel use coupled with a useful if not astonishing EV range means you can run this car almost literally on the smell of an oily rag if you're a suburban or urban dweller.

It also offers the flexibility to deliver a drive between our capitals without any of the nail-biting range anxiety so many Australians claim to have, and that is preventing them from buying an EV.

While it's isn't cheap, neither is progress. But at least you're getting a well-equipped, awesome-looking and fun-to-drive SUV with buckets of space and an attractive badge.

The Tiguan was already an attractive car, with many subtle angular elements which added up to something suitably sophisticated for a European SUV.

For the update, VW has mainly made changes to the Tiguan’s face to keep it in line with the incoming Golf 8’s tweaked design language.

I think it has only served to make this car look better, with more integrated light fittings swooping out of its now more gentle grille treatment. There was a pugnacious toughness about the outgoing model’s flat face that I will miss, though.

The side profile is near identical, the new car only identifiable by subtle chrome touches and new wheel choices, while the rear is freshened up with a new lower bumper treatment, contemporary Tiguan lettering across the rear, and in the case of the Elegance and R-Line, impressive LED light clusters.

The inside, which has had a significant digital overhaul is what will get buyers salivating. Even the base car scores the amazing digital dash, but the larger multimedia screens and sleek touch panels will be sure to impress.

It’s important to note that while pretty much any car can have massive screens today, not all have the processing power to match, but I’m glad to say everything in the VW is as slick and fast as it should be.

The new wheel is a really nice touch with the embedded VW logo and cool looking surrounds. It feels a bit more substantial than the outgoing unit, too, and all the functions on it are nicely laid out and ergonomic to use.

I will say that the colour scheme, no matter which variant you pick, is pretty safe. The dash, while nicely finished, is just one big slate of grey, detracting from the flashy digital overhaul.

Even the inserts are plain and subtle, perhaps a missed opportunity for VW to make the interior of its pricey mid-sizer feel a bit more special.

The XC40 backed up the XC90's design direction, and, like its big brother, it's a belter. The segment has plenty of outstanding designs (that's what happens when everyone gets in on the same game), but the XC40 is a proper looker. From the Hammer of Thor headlights through to the cool concave grille, the upright stance, blacked-out roof and C-pillar, and those signature stacked taillights it's...well, the whole thing is much cooler than it probably should be.

That's not a backhander about Volvo styling - the company has been doing cool for almost 20 years - but the vaguely Minecraft aesthetic shouldn't work, but it does.

The cabin is very nice, too, but in a more conventional way. It's not as bang-up-to-date as a newer German cabin, but then you're not paying another twenty grand for the privilege. The vertical screen works in its environment, the digital dashboard has a high-tech feel and the materials are very pleasant to look at and touch.

Refined and digitised it may have been, but is this update still practical? One of my big worries when hopping in was that the abundance of touch elements would make it distracting to operate while driving.

The touch panel climate unit from the previous car was starting to look and feel a little old, but there’s still a part of me that will miss how easy to use it was.

But the new touch climate panel not only looks good, it’s pretty easy to use too. It just takes a few days of getting used to it.

What I really missed was a volume dial and tactile shortcut buttons on the R-Line’s massive 9.2-inch touch-only screen. It’s a little usability gripe that will get on some people’s nerves.

The same goes for the touch elements on the R-Line’s wheel. They look and feel super cool with odd vibrating feedback, although at times I did fumble things that should be simple like cruise functions and volume. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

It sounds like I’m complaining about the Tiguan’s digital overhaul, but most of it is for the best. The instrument cluster (once an Audi exclusive feature) is one of the best on the market in terms of its look and usability, and the large multimedia screens make it really easy to jab at what function you’re looking for while remaining concentrated on the road.

The cabin is also excellent, with a tall but suitable driving position, big storage bins in the doors, big cupholders and cutaways in the tidy centre console, as well as a small centre console box and odd little pop-open tray atop the dash.

The new Tiguan is USB-C only in terms of connectivity, so bring a converter.

The back seat offers excellent amounts of room for my 182cm (6'0") frame, behind my own driving position. It’s super practical back there, too, with even the base car scoring a third adjustable climate zone with movable vents, USB-C outlet, and a 12V outlet.

There are pockets on the back of the front seats, big bottle holders in the door and drop-down armrest, and weird little pockets atop the seats, too. It’s one of the best rear seats in the mid-size SUV class in terms of amenities for passengers.

The boot is a large 615L VDA regardless of variant. This is also great for the mid-size SUV class, and it fit our entire CarsGuide luggage set with space to spare.

Every Tiguan variant also has a space saver spare under the boot floor, and little cutaways behind the rear wheel arches to maximise storage space.

The power tailgate is a boost, too, although it remains odd that the R-Line misses out on the gesture control.

Rear seat passengers enjoy uncommonly comfortable seats with a pretty serious set of headrests, part of the safety package. The optional "electric folding" mechanism means that if you're on your own in the car, you can press a button and they fall forward out of your vision. It's really quite handy, and for a couple of hundred bucks, and it saves a bit of hassle.

There is tons of head and legroom, too, and rear seat passengers score their own air vents.

The boot starts at a handy-if-not-spectacular 460 litres, rising to 1336 litres with the seats folded down. Some of the boot space is nibbled away by the bag holding the charger you use in a standard 240V domestic point, but not hugely so. 

There are two pairs of cupholders, one in the front next to the dainty little shifter and two in the rear armrest, which is unusually sturdy. Each door will hold a bottle, too, for a maximum of four.

While you can a have an XC40 for just under $47,000 (before on-roads), the Recharge asks $64,990 before options and on-roads.

You get 20-inch alloy wheels, a 14-speaker Harmon Kardon stereo, sat nav, leather seats, power front seats, R-Design bits and pieces (like the steering wheel), dual-zone climate control with air cleaning system, panoramic sunroof, auto LED headlights, auto high beam, wireless phone charging, headlight washers, auto wipers, keyless entry and start and a space-saver spare.

The 9.0-inch, portrait-oriented touchscreen runs a beefy Harmon Kardon 14-speaker stereo and has DAB, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It's a slightly confusing system - if you want to change something about the car, it can be a bit laborious getting from the main system back to CarPlay. I'm sure you'd get used to it, but apart from that, the hardware is quick, the menus comprehensible (for the most part) and the side-swiping action quite familiar.

Our test car had metallic paint ($1150), a Versatility Pack (load protection net, power folding headrests - $230), Climate Pack (heated front seats, windscreen washers and steering wheel - $700), around-view camera ($990 - that stings), tinted rear windows ($700), heated rear seats ($350) and auto parking ($650), taking the total to $69,760. Apart from the one that stung, most of these prices are relatively reasonable.

The Tiguan maintains a relatively complex engine line-up for the class.

The entry level Life can be chosen with its own set of engines. The cheapest of which is the 110 TSI. It’s a 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine producing 110kW/250Nm driving the front wheels via a six-speed dual-clutch automatic. The 110 TSI is the only front-drive option left in the Tiguan range.

Next up is the 132 TSI. It’s a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol producing 132kW/320Nm driving all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

The Elegance and R-Line are available with the same two higher-powered engine choices. This includes the 162 TSI 2.0-litre turbo-petrol which produces 162kW/350Nm, or the 147 TDI 2.0-litre turbo-diesel which produces 147kW/400Nm. Either engine is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and drives all four wheels.

Volkswagen’s engine options here are generally punchier than many of its rivals, some of which still make do with older naturally aspirated units.

Missing from the picture for this update is the word seemingly on every buyer’s lips at the moment – hybrid.

There are hybrid variants available overseas, but due to ongoing issues with Australia’s relatively poor fuel quality, VW has been unable to launch them here. Things could change in the near future, however…

As this is a plug-in hybrid, things are a mite more complex than a standard XC40. The internal combustion engine, which both drives the wheels and can charge the batteries, is a 1.5-litre, three-cylinder turbo unit with 132kW and 265Nm, both pretty good figures on their own. 

Plugged into that is a 60kW/160Nm electric motor which can drive the car all on its lonesome or in combination with the engine.

Making sure the power gets to the front wheels is a seven-speed twin-clutch automatic and the XC40 Recharge will go from rest to 100km/h in a handy 7.4 seconds - about a second slower than the quickest petrol-only model.

The XC40's charge cable plugs into a charging point on the front left of the car between the wheel and the front door. Using the supplied charger, you'll be waiting around six hours for a from-dead charge. If you can find a fast-charger, it will step down to the XC40's throughput and be done in two and a half hours.

Whiz-bang dual-clutch automatics are meant to make for lower fuel numbers, and it certainly seems to be the case for the Tiguan, at least on its official figures.

The 110 TSI Life we tested for this range review has an official/combined consumption figure of 7.7L/100km, while our test car saw around 8.5L/100km.

Meanwhile the 162 TSI R-Line also sampled has an official figure of 8.5L/100km, and our car returned a dash-reported 8.9L/100km.

Keep in mind these tests took place over only a handful of days rather than our usual weekly test, so take our numbers with a grain of salt.

Either way, they are impressive for mid-size SUVs, particularly in the case of the all-wheel drive 162 TSI.

On the downside, all Tiguans require a minimum of 95RON as the engines are incompatible with our cheapest entry-level 91.

This is due to our particularly poor fuel quality standards, which look set to clean up if our fuel refineries get an upgrade in 2024.

Volvo's government-approved ADR testing yielded a slightly silly 2.2L/100km (the Euro-focussed WLTP comes in at 2.0L/100km). This sort of figure is common with PHEVs as the testing cycle is short and not really designed for advanced drivetrains.

Having said that, and throwing out my usual 30 per cent rule (I reckon adding 30 per cent to a fuel figure is probably what you'll get in the real world on a "normal" car), the 5.4L/100km I got during a week's driving is pretty reasonable given the point I was intending to use to charge it didn't work. 

The week I spent with it included two separate 30km EV-only runs across the city where the petrol motor kept to itself the whole time, and I still had about six-kilometres of range left. The 10.7kWh battery has a claimed range of 46km so given a good chunk of that running was in 80km/ zones, that's pretty good going.

Given that so much is similar across the Tiguan range in terms of its spec and fitment, which variant you choose primarily influences the experience behind the wheel.

It’s a shame, for example, that the entry-level 110 TSI hasn’t been tweaked for this facelift, as our gripes with this variant still stand.

The 1.4-litre turbo is efficient and reasonably punchy for its size, but has an annoying power lull when it comes to a stop which can work with the dual-clutch to make for some laggy, glitchy moments.

Where the base car shines, though, is its ride. Like the Golf below it, the 110 TSI Life strikes a fine balance between ride quality and comfort, proving to insulate the cabin well from bumps and road impurities, while giving it enough driver engagement in the corners to feel a little like a giant hatch.

If you want to read more about the 110 Life, we have a variant review of the new one here.

We weren’t able to test the mid-grade Elegance, nor did we sample the 147 TDI diesel for this test, but we did have a chance to drive the top-spec 162 TSI R-Line.

Straight away it’s evident there's a strong case for paying the extra for more grunt. This engine is excellent in terms of the power on offer, and the way it's delivered.

The big boost in these raw figures helps it deal with the extra weight of an all-wheel drive system, and the extra low-down torque makes it an even better match for the snappy dual-clutch automatic.

This has the effect of removing most of the annoying jerky moments from stop-start traffic, while allowing the driver to make the most of the benefits of the instantaneous dual-clutch shifts when accelerating in a straight line.

The all-wheel drive system, more aggressive tyres, and a sharper steering tune in the R-Line make it an absolute pleasure to turn into corners at speed, offering a handling prowess that betrays its shape and relative heft.

Certainly then, there’s something to be said for splashing out on the larger engine, but the R-Line isn’t without its downsides.

The huge wheels conspire to make the ride a tad harsh when bouncing off suburban road imperfections, so if you’re primarily plodding around town and not seeking thrills on the weekend it may be worth considering the Elegance with its smaller 19-inch alloys.

Stay tuned for a future variant review with driving impressions for the 147 TDI, and of course the Allspace and full-fat R when they become available next year.

The XC40 Recharge is a delight around town. I'm a big fan of PHEVs (try saying that ten times quickly) because they're a good halfway house between a full BEV, both on price and for dealing with range anxiety (quick reminder, there will likely be a full EV version of the XC40 here by year's end). 

It's a well-beaten statistic, but most Australians, all being equal, travel an average of 30-40km per day. Which means that despite me saying 2.2L/100km isn't really accurate, if you're the kind of person who buys this car for the school run or short commute, you'll probably never have to use the petrol engine until you decide to get a bit frisky on the accelerator or, like I did, you take it on a highway run down to the NSW South Coast.

The XC40 Recharge will always use its electric motor, with the software keeping a little bit of charge in hand for stepping off at the lights, which is the biggest contributor to fuel usage. Getting 1700kg-plus of car moving requires a lot of energy.

If you need it, the XC40 can get moving very quickly, and in the urban cut and thrust, the combination of instant electric torque and a very effective turbo three-cylinder means breaking into traffic is a doddle. While the 0-100km/h is quick enough, it's quite lively from 0-60km/h, meaning far fewer of those clench-and-punch-it moments when breaking into moving traffic than some other mid-sized SUVs.

And if you keep it charged - easy enough if you have access to a power point and take the view that each night you charge it the same way you charge your phone - you'll spend the vast amount of your time driving in EV-only mode, which is every relaxing and near silent. Or would be if the 20-inch wheels weren't wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero tyres, but even then they're not too noisy.

It's also very easy to live with, easy to park (especially with the rather expensive 360-degree camera) and the vision out is mostly good, apart from over your left shoulder where the rear quarter window is slashed in twain by a stylish application of the set square. The various safety systems ensure it isn't an issue, however.

Being a Volvo, it's laden with safety gear - and you even get a list on the dashboard screen every time you start up, which I think is quite cute.

Along with the usual seven airbags, ABS, and stability and traction controls, the XC40 also has forward AEB (with pedestrian, vehicle, large animal and cyclist detection, and which operates at high and low speed), lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring and reverse cross-traffic alert.

You also get two ISOFIX points and three top-tether anchors. ANCAP last tested the XC40 in July 2018 and awarded it five stars.

Volkswagen continues with a competitive five year/unlimited kilometre warranty, the industry standard when it comes to its primarily Japanese rivals.

It will have more of a fight on its hands when Kia’s next-generation Sportage finally arrives.

Servicing is covered by a capped price program, but the best way to keep the cost down is to purchase the pre-paid service packs which cover you for three years at $1200, or five years at $2400, regardless of variant.

Doing so brings the cost down to very competitive levels, although not to the absurd lows of Toyota.

Volvo throws in a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which is unusual in the Euro segment. You can also pre-pay your servicing with a plan, covering three-years/45,000km for $1595. Volvo expects to see you once every 12 months or 15,000km.